Jefferson Parish teen pleads guilty to fatally stabbing another teen

Elizabeth Rassouli was sentenced to 25 years in prison after she pleaded guilty to manslaughter, for stabbing Michael Hebert, 19, in April 2010.

Elizabeth Rassouli of Harvey was 16 years old when she plunged a knife into another teenager's body during what authorities say was an attempted robbery. Now 19, she has formally admitted to the crime.

Elizabeth RassouliJPSO

After sobbing and agonizing openly in a Jefferson Parish courtroom and speaking privately with her mother several times Friday, Rassouli pleaded guilty to manslaughter, accepting a 25-year sentence in prison for killing Michael Hebert, 19.

"I love you," she told her mother softly from the courtroom's jury box shortly before she pleaded guilty.

She admitted she stabbed Herbert in the chest on April 27, 2010. Herbert drove himself to a hospital, where he told staff there a woman had stabbed him. He died before he was able to give Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office detectives a statement.

Rassouli and Hilda Aguilar, also 16 at the time, were arrested days later and eventually indicted as adults on second-degree murder charges.

Aguilar's case is in limbo after a Jefferson Parish Juvenile Court judge found she is not competent to stand trial, records show. Her murder case in the 24th Judicial District Court was dismissed, records show.

Rassouli's case proved problematic for prosecutors after Judge Conn Regan of the 24th Judicial District Court barred prosecutors from using her confession against her during the trial. Regan found that Rassouli asked for an attorney during the interrogation before she confessed, meaning her constitutional rights had been violated. That decision was affirmed on appeal.

Her public defender, Robert Louque, and Assistant District Attorney Vince Paciera negotiated the plea deal, Regan said Friday in accepting the guilty plea. It's unclear whether Regan's ruling in suppressing the confession led to plea negotiations.

Further problematic in the case was the U.S. Supreme Court's decision this year in Miller vs. Alabama, in which justices ruled it is cruel and unusual punishment to sentence juvenile killers to mandatory life sentences in prison.

Under Louisiana law, Regan would have had no choice but to sentence Rassouli to mandatory life in prison with no parole had she been convicted of second-degree murder.

In October, Louque filed papers in court seeking to have the case tossed out on grounds that the charge was illegal in light of the high court's ruling. Louque's request was still pending when Rassouli pleaded guilty.

Rassouli won't be eligible to be released from prison before she is 37 years old. She gets credit for the time she's already been jailed awaiting trial and assuming she'll be freed after serving 85 percent of the sentence for good behavior.